Everyone must’ve thought that I was in so much pain. But really, it was my pride that was hurting.

2.

Several years ago, I noticed a small lump on my nose. I thought it was cancer. I completely freaked out and quickly went to get it checked out.

My doctor sent me to a skin specialist, who said it was a common skin virus – otherwise known as a WART. OMG I HAVE A WART ON MY NOSE! A WART! ON MY NOSE! LIKE THE FINAL STROKE ON THE EPITOME OF UGLINESS, I’M A WALKING CLICHÉ!

My doctor said she could burn it off. But it might grow back. There might be scarring. The scars might never fade. The burning might irritate it and it might grow back even bigger! OMG I HAVE A WART ON MY NOSE!

Then my doctor suggested I see a plastic surgeon.

Seriously? What will a plastic surgeon do? Isn’t that a bit drastic? I have to see a plastic surgeon to fix my nose? That’s the solution for ugliness? Can this situation get anymore clichéd?

While I was umming and ahhing about seeing a plastic surgeon, the lump disappeared by itself. THANK GOODNESS!

My husband and I took some time out the other day. We were in between appointments, and made an effort to meet up. We don’t usually get to see each other in the afternoons. It was really good to see us both at our “best” – when our brains haven’t turned to pulp at the end of the day.

We had coffee and lunch at Jo Jo’s– a restaurant on a jetty, on the Swan River. The view was lovely, the food was nice, and the atmosphere was good for long, deep conversations.

It was a spectacular day. Bright and sunny. Big, blue skies. Not a breath of wind. The river was calm. The water was sparkling.

We saw some jellyfish around the jetty. They were everywhere. Hovering and bobbing, like UFOs on cruise-control. Strange, yet amazing. Ugly, yet beautiful.

We managed to take some cool photographs. The water was so clear and still, that it looks like I used an underwater camera.

I loved the way the water would bend oh-so slightly as the jellyfish thumped its head on the surface. It would make the relfections of the clouds warp and shimmer, as if painting the surface with white spirals.

When I create a weekly meal plan, I always try to consider the following things:

Fresh and Natural
I like to use fresh ingredients that are preferably organic, no msg, no additives, colours or artificial flavours. I stay away from instant powders, mixes, sauces, soups and dressings. I’d say the only instant stuff I use are Indian curry pastes and the occasional stock cube (but even then I’m really picky with my brands).

Healthy
I try to use less oil, salt, butter, cream, and sugar where possible.

It doesn’t mean I use more lo-fat / lo-sugar stuff, because manufacturers usually put in other stuff to compensate. I just go without.

Lots of Vegetables
I always try to keep vegetables raw. If not, I steam, or boil, or bake, or lastly fry. In that order of preference.

I always try to have vegetables at the table at every meal. I like my dark green and red vegetables.

Time and Convenience
I am really short on time. Each meal has to take me 30 minutes to actually cook and put together. 45 minutes at the most. I very rarely make a meal that requires time during the day to prepare (eg. prepping and baking a lasagne, folding dumplings, skewering kebabs.)

Cost Concern
I go shopping once a week. I buy lots of things in bulk. I grow my own herbs and some vegetables.

When I buy a “feature” ingredient for one meal, I create other meals in the week that can also use it. Eg. If I buy a tub of bocconcini, I’ll use it on pizza, a side salad, and in a pasta. So there’s no waste.

The “feature” ingredient is usually more expensive, so I tend to only buy 2-3 per week.

Eat Out Once a Week
I believe in breaking the routine once in a while. Hanging out as a family and doing something a little special. We usually go to my parent’s place for dinner, or we go to the beach and eat fish and chips. Sometimes I pack a picnic dinner and we’ll sit by the river.

We very rarely go out to a restaurant and eat out as a family. Mostly because of cost. Partly because I can’t bring myself to eat crappy, mass-produced, badly-made, over-processed food.
So fast food places, cheap pizzas, and local Chinese takeaway is out of the question.

More Fish. Less Meat.
Each week I try to make 3 vegetarian meals + 3 fish meals + 1 red meat meal. I don’t believe there’s much nutritional benefit from pork or chicken. But I think I need a boost of iron from red meat.

This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own.

After reading the excerpt, I immediately bought the book. It sounded like such an intriguing story, something I would really like. And ok, I admit, I really liked the cover image.

But unfortunately, I didn’t connect with the characters at all. Perhaps it was because I haven’t personally experienced any of the issues in the story – loss of a child, dealing with deep personal grief, living in a difficult, empty marriage, keeping dark secrets from loved ones, not taking control of your life until you discover that you’re 40 and full of sadness and regret.

So maybe others will find it to be exquisitely moving and touching.

For me, I was mainly annoyed with the characters, and overburdened with the intricate detail of someone else’s tragic life.

Having said that, it wasn’t a badly written book. I finished it in less than a week.

There were some really beautiful moments as the characters faced their grief and confusion – moments of the past, layered and entwined with the details of the present. If you don’t like long, poetic paragraphs of snow falling, soaked with memory flashbacks, the book’s probably not for you.

A friend sent me a link to ASOS Online , an online fashion store. The dresses looked really nice and really affordable. I picked out a few I liked, which, after seeing them placed side by side, all seemed quite similar. Must be a phase I’m in.

Every morning, my 3 year old will wake up by himself, any time from 6am to 7:30am.

He will plod over to the kitchen, take his night-time nappy off and put it in the bin.

However, 2 seconds before he does that, still holding a soaked nappy in one hand and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he takes a moment to inspect the contents of the bin.

If there is anything remotely interesting, worthy of inspection, or that he feels for some reason should not be in the bin, he will pull it out of the bin and shout “WHAT’S THIS DOING IN THE BIN???”

The object may be dripping with sauce, coasted in grease, tangled with hair and dirt and finger nail clippings. It doesn’t matter. He’ll drag the object in to my room, to my bed and wave it in my face.

“I SAID, WHAT’S THIS DOING IN THE BIN??? WHY’D YOU THROW IT AWAY HUH??”

Obviously, I am not too pleased about it myself. Considering I am not a morning person.

He demands an explanation. I speak kindly, but firmly. But. Despite what I say or do, it happens every morning.

So what did I do? Well. After weeks of trying to get on top of it, I have admitted defeat.

I now check my rubbish every night, to make sure there are no INTERESTING THINGS in it.

Despite the fact that we had such a busy day yesterday, we all woke up at 7am to attend an Easter Egg Hunt. I have to mention that I absolutely despise Easter Egg Hunts – but oh, how I love hot cross buns.

We went to church, stayed for lunch, caught up with my cousins and family. Got home. Slept. Babysitter arrived. Then the hubs and I left for a party.

We went to a friend’s 40th birthday party at the Mosman Park Bowl Club. We ate roasted meats, sipped wine and played bowls in the setting sun, overlooking the river.

The boys cleaned up the house and backyard. They tidied the patio. Pruned the vines. Swept the paving. Set up chairs in the garden. Blew up balloons. Strung up decorations.

I made food. Lots of it. I made chicken and eggplant curry, roasted turkey, sweet potato salad, an organic bean salad, a garden salad, and sausage cocktails. My dad made fresh satays and homemade peanut sauce, and my mum made an amazing platter of fried noodles.

I love implementing parties. But I’m not too keen on PLANNING them. Pirate theme or jungle theme? What kind of food should we have? What time should we have it? Should we have games? Can the Wong family make it? Maybe we should have it at a park this time? Which park? Will it have a lake? That might be dangerous for the little kids…. it can stress me out big time.

Haha. So in the end, it’s usually the same. Big family bash in the backyard, with lots of food. I don’t know why I bother to stress about it in the first place.

Also. In the afternoon, I brought our boys to another kid’s birthday party. I was considering to skip it, in case the boys got too hyped-up and sugared-up for our own party that evening, but it was for some good friends – and in our household, good friends are treasured.

The kid’s party was held at a warehouse sized, indoor play gym, with lots of screaming kids, party food and face painting.

You’d think that after an afternoon of running, jumping, swinging, climbing and sliding, that my boys would be tired? Not a chance.

My 5yo got his face painted like Spiderman. It COMPLETELY made his day.

I was slightly worried that he would look at himself in the mirror and freak out. But thankfully he loved it.

Then I got very worried that he would come home and throw himself face-first onto the couch and leave face-prints on the carpets. So the moment we got home, I made him wash it off. He looked as if he had a bad face rash for the rest of the day.

We made the kids take a short nap. Then the guests arrived.

We played an egg and spoon race – with these adorable plastic eggs and bean bag egg yolks. Sooo cute.

And we had bean bag races (Sean cheated).

And last of all, I made a pirate ship birthday cake!

It was actually supposed to be a TREASURE CHEST birthday cake. Bursting with gold coins, necklaces and yellow snakes. That’s what I planned anyway.

But as I pulled it out of the oven, I realised my mistake. Damn! I used the wrong cake tin! The cake turned out wide and flat, rather than slim and tall. It was 10pm at night. And after exhausting every possible solution to fix it – I decided to bake ANOTHER cake. But I looked at my egg carton. No more eggs. Damn! I can’t make another cake! Argh!
So the pirate ship was a last minute improvisation. I’m so pleased with it! No food colouring! And I even found a little toy pirate guy in the kid’s toy box.

I thought that stress was a major cause for being unable to fall pregnant.

Apparently, the medical community “acknowledges” that stress affects women’s menstruation, in different ways.

And they also state that when “stress-reduction techniques” are applied, some women have been able to conceive when they originally could not.

But other than that, there is not enough scientific evidence to support that stress causes infertility.

Now I don’t think I’m a stressful person. And I don’t think I lead a stressful life.

So I usually glaze over the section where is says : Trying to fall pregnant? Reduce the stress in your life! Go for a walk! Take a bath! Read a book! Pick up a new hobby!

Doesn’t apply to me!

But I was talking to a doctor friend of mine, who was a lot more open minded towards holistic medicine and wellbeing.

She asked me to check my dates from when I first started trying to conceive, “How long are your cycles?”

I almost brushed her off, thinking that small irregularities in my cycle were not much of a concern to me. After all, everyone’s irregular. But I went home and I counted up all my dates, including before trying to conceive.